I think I have an infection

from Saccharomyces. Sorry couldn't resist :smack:

I did a 7 day, 1/2 gallon crock pot sour mash (with raw pilsner) then pitched it into 2 gallons of low gravity, low hopped wort (Berliner). I then left the fermenter in a cooler on a hot pad around 90F for another 7 days. Around day 5 it started forming a nice pecile. When I opened the fermenter on day 7 the pecile looked much different and had spots of brown (see attached). Once I had the wort cooled I pitched 1007.

The gravity dropped from 1.031 to 1.022 during the 7 days of souring. I didn't think lacto would cause the gravity to drop so think I may have picked up some wild yeast. Everything soaked in Starsan before coming into contact with the wort.

FYI, the gravity sample smelled and tasted awesome! just a little sweet.

What's the verdict? Wild yeast? Something else?

I think that Lacto can ferment up to 3%?

I couldn't find much info searching threads on lacto fermentation, but one suggested that lacto has the same gravity as sugars from wort. If that's true the gravity should not change.

Since the wort still tastes fine I'm not worried. Just curious what others think happened.